The War You Don't See
by gholtripper
Summary: Everyone knows that war is hell. Soldiers die and cities are leveled but what happens to those that aren't fighting? A story centered around a boy and his brother as they try to survive the reaper war as it begins.
1. Epilogue

(*Author's Note: Hello readers! This is my first foray into creative writing and decided to post it here to see if there were any others who might like it. It's a story centered during the reaper war around a boy and his brother and their adventures throughout. I won't say I'm the best writer ever but I hope you at least enjoy it! Leave a comment to let me know how I could improve!*)

The moon of Elysium was home to a few forward stations run by the Alliance. Put in place after a notable mercenary slaver attack as an early warning system for any unwanted ships approaching the planet. The communications center was a buzz of activity as different messages from all over space were coming in. While most of them were garbled and unintelligible, the ones that did come through all had the same thing to say. "Under attack by massive unknown ships. Destruction and casualties severe."

Josefa Chetty was the chief operations officer for the communications station. He was sitting in his chair staring at a terminal as he watched the increasing comm traffic come through. His light blue eyes scanned frantically as he tried to settle his stomach from upheaving. Every station in Alliance space that was near a comm-buoy was getting these messages. It wouldn't even do him any good to forward the messages to his superiors because, undoubtedly, they were getting them too. Every message and call for help was marked priority Alpha-1, the highest warning that could be given by those who weren't generals or admirals.

"Officer Chetty!" Called one of the many specialists who were looking to him for answers to their many questions. Who was doing this? Should we warn the Alliance? What do we do? However, Josefa was lost in his own mind. This wasn't some kind of full-scale call to war by the batarians. Some of the messages had pictures or short muted videos attached to them that showed tall black pillars of ships with multiple legs like some kind of organic creature of metal breaking through Earth's atmosphere. Fires raged under the alien ships as they annihilated everything in their path. This was not something that anyone had ever seen before.

He had never been so terrified in his life but he couldn't allow his fear to cloud his judgement. He couldn't even ask his superiors for advice on how to proceed since 95% of outgoing messages instantly failed. It was a miracle that the few messages they were getting even came through at all. He had people relying on him and he wasn't going to let them down but a decision like this was not something to be done lightly. He swallowed hard and looked up to his expecting specialists in the room. "Get a shuttle down to the surface and tell the Elysium government to initialize Silent Summer, authorization code epsilon-seven-seven-zero-six-nine-theta, full-scale preparations for unknown hostile alien invasion. I won't risk any messages not making it down there immediately. They'll know how to proceed." The specialist who first addressed him hesitated, his eyes going wide and his body going still. After a moment, he snapped a crisp salute and nodded once before charging out of the room, nearly stumbling over a step out of the room. Silent Summer was a top secret plan put into place by the Alliance should any new hostile alien species appear. It was not something to use unless you were absolutely sure but if these messages were anything to go by then there was no need to second guess.

"Petra relay powering up!" One of the communications specialist called from the front of the room. Every head in the room perked up, including Josefa's, to look at the woman who spoke up. "Incoming ship doesn't match any known signatures on any database!" The woman changed one of the screens in the room to a satellite with a camera that was pointed at the relay to watch ships come through. A deafening silence sat in the room as they watched the relay centrifuge quickly get faster and faster until ships began to appear. To everyone's horror, it was the same dark ships that were in the messages they had been receiving all day. Everyone's mouth's hung open in a silent scream as they watched the unknown alien ships come screaming towards Elysium.


	2. Chapter 1

(One day later)

Another boring lecture to start off the day, thought Matthew. The monotony that had become student life was beginning to wear him down day by day. Matthew was a young man of twenty one years and was five feet, ten inches tall of about one hundred and fifty pounds. He wore his dark brown hair short so that it required as little management as possible. He was dressed in a simple grey t-shirt and blue jeans with a down jacket hanging on the back of his chair. The process of waking up, taking a shower, and grabbing an espresso from the café on the corner towards his campus had become so engrained in his daily ritual that he could have done it with his eyes closed and still managed to pay the correct amount for the morning beverage. It wasn't that he was so meticulous that he needed to do everything precisely the same way everyday but that it was just easier to do things the same way day by day. There was less of a chance that something would go wrong and today was no different.

A casual glance through his brown, sleepy eyes examined the room he was in. It was a tall lecture hall that supported stadium style seating to allow all one hundred and twenty students an easy view of the front where the professor dispensed his knowledge. A dull glow emanated in front of each pupil where a terminal sat that allowed interactions with the older human in the very front of the room. It was just dark enough in the room that any tired soul would fall asleep instantly if you didn't fight the urge. This class was all about an insight to modern networks and how both ethical and non-ethical hackers could gain access to sensitive information. Humans consisted of the majority of the class with a few specs of a beautiful asari or a diligent salarian dotting the rows of young adults. Although Matthew could never really tell the ages of either alien species considering the former aged longer than he could ever dream of while the latter barely lived longer than half of his own lifespan.

Whatever the lifespan, this class probably felt like an eternity hidden in three hours or maybe it was just him since he spent all last night reading the very chapter that the professor was discussing. Leaning his cheek onto his palm, he couldn't help but let his mind wander to other things as his eyelids slowly drifted closed.

"Matthew!" came the shout from the front of the room. He jolted in his seat, surprised at hearing his name being called when he so rarely ever participated in class discussions. He blinked a few times as his eyes had to refocus on the lesson.

"Yes?" He responded hastily. He quickly woke up his terminal in preparation for whatever the teacher needed from him. A few students were looking at him with a mixture of amusement and impatience.

"I asked you to complete the traversal of this network; node A to node G please," came back the professor with mild irritation. He was pointing at a display on the front of the room that contained a spider web of branching connections and paths that visually represented computers on a network. The idea was to get from one side to the other as quickly as possible to avoid detection and to save time. It was a simple task considering he'd done it a thousand times on his own. The fact that he had already read the information from the book just made the request feel that much more tedious. A quick command input, a few strokes of his fingers, and he finished the task with his process being displayed for all to see on the large main display.

"Thank you," the professor said dryly. "You may resume napping now." That got a few chuckles to roll through the room. Matthew simply sat back in his seat and kept his eyes forward with a small scowl, now eager to defy his teacher's request out of spite.

The rest of the lesson was just as boring as it started and when the professor dismissed everyone, he was glad to pack his data pads into his backpack, put on his jacket, and leave the campus. He looked around a few moments at the other passing students that were also walking to their vehicles. Elysium was known to be cold, especially in the winter months and it always amused him seeing the aliens who attended his university bundled up in heavy clothing. Even though he had gotten used to seeing them more often after moving here when he was ten, it was still a small novelty that made him grin to see. Regardless of his small interest in them, he rarely ever spoke to anyone of his own volition. He simply never had the desire to talk to others, preferring to keep to himself. He couldn't really place his reasoning for it. It wasn't as if he disliked or even hated anyone at his university, he just liked his solitude. He walked to his ground car after a minute of staring and unloaded his things before driving home a little earlier than usual. He was going to have to pick up his younger brother Thomas from school but there were a few things to do first. Once Matthew arrived home, he found that it was devoid of his parents, William and Sara. They were usually working a normally scheduled routine since they were both members of the Systems Alliance, his father being an aerospace engineer and his mother being a nurse. Today, however, both of his parents were supposed to be home early as well so that they could prepare for Thomas' 12th birthday.

Matthew had come home early to help with getting a surprise birthday party ready for when he would go pick up Thomas from school so he was confused when his parents weren't around, even more so with the shape that the room was in. A few party decorations were hanging on the wall with a slew of others strewn about on the coffee table and couch in preparation to be placed in their appropriate spots. It looked as if they had begun hanging decorations but left in a haste.

"Hello?" Matthew called out tentatively to the open room. He dropped his backpack on the couch next to a box labeled 'streamers' before walking through the house to investigate the location of his parents. Their house was small, only a single story home that was offered to them at a cheap price by the Alliance. The living room and kitchen were combined into one large room that was separated by a divider. Four chairs sat in a small corner in between where they would eat their meals. He proceeded down the hallway to his left where the bedrooms were, checking each room as he passed. Thomas' room was just as messy as he remembered. Model ships and toy soldiers littered his desk and posters of action movies as well as Commander Shepard the Hero of the Citadel in her bright shining glory on the wall but no sign of anyone. His own room was a bit more organized but it was filled with computer parts and RC drones as a personal hobby of his. Again, no sign of his parents. Finally entering the last room where his parents stayed also showed no signs of them. Strange, Matthew thought to himself. Maybe they got called back to work for something?

He opened up the omni-tool on his wrist and tried sending out a message to his mother first. He instantly got a bounce back message exclaiming that it was delivered unsuccessfully. He frowned at the small orange screen at how quickly it came back. It always reminded him in the back of his mind of ten years ago during the Skyllian Blitz when the mercenaries had taken out comm buoys around the planet and crippled long range communication. He took a deep breath and turned off his omni-tool. That was a long time ago and they wouldn't be stupid enough to try again, would they? He convinced himself that there was probably just something interfering with his parent's omni-tools. It happened from time to time and was perfectly normal. A small shiver ran up his spine but he simply shook it off as the home being cold and walked back to the living room that had the forgotten decorations in it. He'd just try again after he picked up Thomas from school.

After spending an hour turning their small home into a surprise party, Matthew took a step back to survey his work with a satisfied grin. "I'm sure he'll like it." He muttered to himself and nodded to the empty air. He then grabbed his own backpack and coat so he could leave to pick up the waiting birthday boy.


	3. Chapter 2

The Alliance naval base was a buzz of activity as strange messages started coming through communications. In the naval transport hangar that William Hammond was in charge of, engineers and pilots were scrambling around to prep all the vehicles. His blue eyes glanced up to watch his men work, scratching his military cut black hair before looking back down at his screen. He had received a message earlier today that called him back into work regardless of the fact that he had taken the day off for his son's birthday. It was an all hands on deck emergency, according to his higher ups. Word was that they were expecting some kind of attack from an unknown enemy. William's fingers tapped quickly on his diagnostics console while swearing up and down about batarians and their penchant for this colony.

"Bastards just can't get it through their heads that this is _our_ colony." He muttered at his console. He was currently working with the engineers under him to make sure all ships and ground vehicles were prepared for assault and ready to be scrambled as needed. A square in the corner of his screen lit up to notify him of an incoming call coming from Sara Hammond, his wife. She was currently working as the head nurse on the Alliance base, preparing for incoming patients should combat happen. He pressed the call accept button and began streaming the sound through an ear piece while a video feed that replaced the square in the corner. Her nurse outfit looked different from the others to distinguish herself as the head nurse. His beautiful wife with brown hair that was tied back in a bun and brown eyes that made him smile every time he saw them. Today, however, they looked haggard from stress. "How's it going over there, honey?" William asked without missing a step during his testing. He could hear on an amalgamation of voices and sounds coming through the call. They were clearly just as busy as he was.

"It's controlled chaos, as best as I can tell you." Sara's voice said through his ear piece. "Half the nurses are calm and ready while the other half have seen something like this, back in the Blitz." She nearly swallowed that last word. It was hard on both of them and their family when the batarians attacked Elysium. They worried that their oldest, Matthew, had been hit hard by it. He wasn't actually injured during the invasion but those damn aliens had taken away that feeling of security that you just couldn't get back.

"We're all just trying to keep ourselves occupied so that no one falls victim to their own thoughts. How about your side?" Sara asked.

"All's quiet on the western front…" He said back with a tight voice, pulling at the collar of his naval uniform. "I'm keeping my boys busy with more tasks than they can handle. They don't even know the full extent of what's going on." The big problem was, neither did he. Even _his_ bosses didn't tell him everything. He could tell during the morning briefing that their faces were pale from anticipation.

"What are we going to do about the kids?" Sara questioned before shouting an order to a nurse that William couldn't see. "Matthew should be getting out of class soon and he's going to pick up Thomas still, right? Should we tell him to just bring Thomas here so they can stay in the shelter?"

"I don't think we need to worry them about it yet." William replied quickly. The last time this happened, it was bad. A lot of people were taken or killed and Matthew was old enough to understand everything that was happening. Thankfully, Thomas was not. "If the threat level gets escalated then we'll tell them to go to the public shelter." He checked the corner of his screen for a moment to see Sara's face turning down in a deep frown. He knew that look and he understood it. He wanted to be there to protect his kids just as much as she did but they had a job to do to make sure that _everyone_ on the colony would be safe and that they would be prepared. "Everything will be fine, hon. Just focus on your nurses." He said with a tight smile. He could hear a long, drawn out sigh from Sara.

"I sure hope so." She said quietly. "I'll be working through lunch at this rate unless someone pulls me away and forces me to eat. So I probably won't see you in the mess."

William let out a small chuckle. "That's my girl, always workin' hard. Good luck over there."

"You too. I love you."

"Love you." William closed the call and let out a sigh of his own, looking back up at all of his workers. Engineers were checking vehicles, pilots were testing their on-board flight options, and he was up at the top of the hangar looking down at everyone working. Something in his gut told him that this was big. Something worse than the batarians but he couldn't tell what. He just chalked it up to his own nervousness before pushing it to the back of his mind. He had a job to do.

As fate would have it though, he would receive a message from his boss, Commander Zhao. It was a short message that made his blood freeze. "Unidentified enemies have breached the Petra Nebula relay and heading for Elysium. Enemies feared to be reapers. Prepare all ships for mobilization." His hands paused over the diagnostics screen. What in the hell were reapers? He quickly watched to see all the people working but they weren't reacting at all. The message had clearly been for just him and he suspected the other people in his position as a lead. He needed to handle this carefully or he was going to cause panic. He pressed a button on his console and opened an intercom to the entire hangar. He sincerely hoped that everyone would be disciplined enough for this. "Attention naval hangar one. We have been escalated to threat level three. Prepare all ships for deployment and ready all weapons. This is not a drill." He said in a focused voice of authority before releasing the button. He observed the looks on the engineers that went from shock to concentration in a matter of seconds as they returned to their work at double the efforts.

As soon as he finished giving his order, another call came through on his console from Sara. He picked it up instantly with the video and audio.

"You just got the message?" She asked instantly with a worried expression on her face.

William simply nodded once in response.

"Dammit…" Sara murmured. "We're as ready as we can be here but I'm more worried about the kids. They won't even know what's going on once the evacuation orders go out."

The discipline that was implanted in their mind through their years in the military was forcing them to keep doing their job on base. However, their parental instincts were screaming at them to run home and protect their children from the impending attack.

"I'll call Matthew now and let him know what to do. Hey-…" William snapped, staring directly back at his wife. "They're going to be fine. Elysium is much better equipped for this this time around." His wife simply stared back at him with that same troubled look. He could tell she had the same trepidations he was having.

"I hope you're right." Sara said before cutting the call. William took the moment to start more automatic diagnostic and calibration tools before opening a call to Matthew. However, the call wasn't going through. What was going on? He was able to contact Sara just fine but not his son? Maybe it's because they were using their internal network to communicate. Could this mysterious enemy have taken out their satellites already? No… They couldn't be that close, could they?


	4. Chapter 3

"Sir, I know why we're here but I'm telling you we can do so much more." Skythix Teratus said to her Alliance delegate with a hint of annoyance. She and her squad of four had been assigned to Elysium as an exchange program between the turian Hierarchy and the human Alliance. He was Lieutenant Commander Schwarzwald, the man designated to be her go between for herself and the Alliance. It was pretty clear from the start that he wasn't interested in the whole thing but Skythix was used to dealing with people who didn't want to do their jobs. She was sure he was as well.

"I've told you before, Lieutenant," the man began saying from behind his desk with his hands steepled. "Your team is under a very delicate policy that I can't deviate from." He ran a hand through his short blond hair with a sigh before looking back at Skythix with his blue eyes. The human seemed to have bags under his eyes and his sharp cheek bones and chin always made him look exhausted. She was getting better at reading human facial expressions after being around them for so long. "You're better off contacting your commander back on Palaven than coming to me."

"I've been trying to get in touch with them for weeks now but I barely get more than a, 'Your message has been forwarded to the proper authorities to handle your request'." Skythix crossed her arms and cocked her thin hip to the side. A sign of irritation in human females that she had developed over time.

"And yet I'm not those authorities, Teratus." He said, placing his hands down on the table flat as if to punctuate his statement. "All I can do from my position is make sure you have everything you need while you're here and making sure any complaints you have are in your report at the end of each week."

Skythix fluttered her mandibles a few times, doing her best to hide a growl forming in her throat before returning to a more rigid stance. It was clear this wasn't going anywhere. Mountains couldn't move other mountains, after all. "Very well." Skythix said after a moment. "That will be all, sir."

The human nodded his head once and returned to working on the terminal at his desk. Skythix took that to mean she was free to turn around and exited the small office. Skythix was an average height for female turians but that still put her over most humans. Her skin and plates were a dark tan color and the colony paint on her face was a similar green color of her sharp eyes. The paint streaked across her nose and cheek and down her mouth in an almost squared shape. She had a thin frame for a turian but she was deceptively strong. Most of the humans still gave her strange looks when she walked down the hallway even though she had been there for a few months already. She couldn't really blame them, though. She'd be staring too if it weren't for the inherit stoicism buried inside her that kept her from doing anything disrespectful. Although, that didn't stop her from looking when she thought it was safe. It didn't stop the random comments she'd get from the occasional ensign or green recruit that didn't realize she outranked them more than they had hoped for. Regardless, she mostly kept to herself, her squad, and the people she was training with.

It took her about five minutes to get back to the barracks where her team was relaxing in between sessions. It was sectioned off into multiple areas for all of the soldiers. One part was the sleeping area that was layered in tightly packed bunk beds, one area was the mess hall where all the meals were served, and the last part was the recreation area where soldiers went to work out and shower. For her and her team, they typically spent a lot of time in the rec area which always got them looks but also the occasional challenge from a proud or cocky human. Today, her team was currently practicing sparring with some of the Alliance recruits. There was someone manning almost every machine or area in the rec hall working out but a lot of the attention was on the sparring mats where her team was. It seemed that Valus and Aryus were doing a demonstration on turian grappling methods. Sergeant Valus Thyren was their team's medic and hulked out the biggest size out of the four of them. Corporal Aryus Orick was their pilot who always flew their shuttles and drove their vehicles. Both of the males looked like they were enjoying themselves and the reactions from the humans when they'd perform a rather spectacular takedown. The last member of Skythix's team was Sergeant Varima Xeratus who was standing off to the side to monitor as a referee. She was their shock trooper who shared responsibility with Skythix on explosives and heavy weapons. Her team was very front-lined focused but the best kicker was that they were a cabal unit. Everyone on the team had biotics and was specially trained to use them. It was always a strange topic of conversation when humans would ask about turian biotics considering they didn't understand the stigma against them.

"Watch closely now, recruits!" Aryus called out on the mats. He was the youngest one on their team and always seemed to have the happier demeanor. He and Valus were facing each other in a fighting stance, waiting for the other to make a move. Aryus had striking golden eyes and charcoal gray skin that made his eyes and colony paint stand out. His face paint was probably the most elegant of design with blues, greens, and whites, but predominantly white. Streaks of decorative lines across his crest and face made him stand out the most. Skythix sometimes wondered if he got them purposely modified to make them flashier but that would have just been disrespectful to ask. Valus had slightly lighter colored skin than Aryus but much less refined pattern than Aryus'. His eyes were dark blue and his face paint were simple red streaks on his mandibles. He bulked the most out of all of them and his crest was slightly longer than the other males. He also had a very calm demeanor that never seemed to fit his stature, like a gentle giant.

"Sergeant Valus here might be bigger than me but that doesn't mean I can't control the situation." Aryus was rattling off as if he were some kind of instructor even though Valus was his senior in age and in rank. Skythix showed a toothy grin as she approached the mats, a few people making room for her to get closer. Varima noticed Skythix's entrance first and smirked at Aryus.

"Better not screw it up this time, Orick! It's funny the first time Thyren knocks you on your ass but the second time is just embarrassing!" Varima called out at Aryus with a cupped hand. Varima was about the same size as Skythix but had an almost pale color to her plates. She had an interesting central heterochromia in her eyes that made then looked green on the outside and light brown on the inside. Her colony paint was white on one side and black on the other side, making her eyes stand out that much more.

"That was just a fluke!" Aryus called back to Varima with a laugh. "Besides, I was going easy on him!" Valus took that moment to throw a fake punch causing Aryus to flinch back.

"I'm your opponent right now, Orick." Valus said with his deep voice. Aryus shook his head once and kept that same smirk on his face, raising his fists up properly.

"Hate to break up the show here," Skythix began to say, raising a hand in the air to get everyone's attention. At this point, Valus and Aryus finally noticed Skythix's presence. "But I gotta talk to my team and would appreciate it if people came back for the show later today." Quite a few groans rang out from the crowd along with a few words of disappointment at not getting to see the turians spar. As the crowd slowly dispersed, Skythix's team slowly merged together to face the female.

"What's on your mind, Lieutenant?" Varima asked, leaning an arm on Aryus' shoulder which was quickly brushed off with a swat of his hand.

Skythix stood straight in front of her squad with her hands behind her back to address her team. "Listen up." She said rigidly. The other three turians absorbed her tone and stance and mimicked it quickly. "I talked to the Lieutenant Commander about trying to get us relocated but it looks like it's the same situation as before." The other three members looked at her with displeased looks but all nodded understandingly. Skythix took a deep breath before speaking again. "I know you guys have been itching to get back out into the void but we're going to have to hold out a little longer." They had been on this exchange program for a little over a year now and all of them were previously already on assignments before their commanding officers had recommended them for this program. It seemed exciting and interesting at the time but that enthusiasm died off rather quick.

"They still haven't told us why?" Valus asked.

Skythix shook her head. "Getting the same run around as before."

"It almost sounds like they don't want us back." Aryus said with indignation.

"I know how you feel, Orick, but we're just going to have to hang on for a little longer."

Suddenly, a klaxon began to scream through the barracks, jarring everyone from their concentration and making everyone stop what they were doing on the machines. All the Alliance personnel's omni-tools flashed to life with a message. Skythix and her team looked around at all the soldiers since their tools didn't light up. "What's going on?" Skythix asked the closest soldier.

"It's a high priority alert for incoming hostile forces. All hands." The man responded to her before quickly darting off with the rest of the people in the room.

Skythix turned back to her small crew with a fierce look. "You heard him! Suit up and meet in the hangar! Two minutes! Let's move!" She shouted before the group ran to their supply lockers to gather their gear.


End file.
